Team building success

California Children’s Services provides case management and direct physical and occupational therapy services to children with complex special health care needs. The program is structured so that it coordinates care for children assigned to 5 different teams, but members of the team work in different locations. A committee was organized to plan a workshop that would build a bridge for our teams to develop a better understanding of everyone’s role in providing services for our clients. We wanted the activity to be interactive and fun with the focus on team building and improving communication.

Our workshop was held with Bill Jacox leading the program. 100 staff attended the 4 hour training on a lovely afternoon in San Leandro. 97% of the staff reported that they thought that overall, the workshop was good to excellent. 96% of the staff responded that they felt that the workshop will help them collaborate with their team more effectively at work.

In follow-up to this workshop the direct services side of the program scheduled a workshop in August 2016, with the focus on diving deeper into team development and communication. 94% of the staff reported that overall the program was good to excellent with some comments like: “Great follow-up to the May training” and “Great self reflection and ability to discuss immediately following an idea”.

94% of the staff reported that overall the program was good to excellent.

As the assistant chief therapist of the program, I continue to receive positive comments about the workshop and staff are looking forward to our next All CCS workshop. The Alameda County Training & Education Center was crucial to the positive outcomes from these trainings. Their collaboration in the development of the workshops helped us shape the program to meet our goals. We realized that we could not have done this without the help and guidance we received prior to the event. The Training Center facilitator was excellent at engaging staff participation during the workshop, leading to a very meaningful learning experience for all.